Macquarie closes €38 million Spanish solar infrastructure debt investment

Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions (“MIDIS”), on behalf of its European and Asian insurance company clients, today announced a new transaction in the Spanish renewables sector, with a €38 million debt investment in a portfolio of solar farms.   

The portfolio is owned and managed by Q-Energy, a leading European investor and asset manager in the renewable energy sector. Comprised of six operational PV plants in south-eastern Spain, the portfolio totals 13.6MWp in installed capacity. MIDIS refinanced the portfolio’s existing debt with 21-year, amortising, floating rate, senior secured bonds, and structured an orphan interest rate swap facility to support the transaction, provided by Goldman Sachs International. 

MIDIS continues to explore opportunities in the Spanish renewables market, seeking to match long-dated liabilities with investments that generate stable, long-term cash flows. In the last twelve months, MIDIS has deployed over €150 million into the Spanish solar sector to help meet the evolving demand through a combination of separately managed accounts and its Macquarie Global Infrastructure Debt Fund strategy. 

Tom van Rijsewijk, Managing Director, MIDIS, said: “Significant capital investment is required as Spain pursues its ambitious target to generate 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050. We’re helping to tackle this challenge by matching institutional investor demand for predictable, long-term investments with a growing pipeline of Spanish solar projects that require bespoke and flexible debt solutions. We worked closely with the Q-Energy team to structure and deliver this transaction and as we continue to provide more financing to the sector, we look forward to building on this and other long-term partnerships with high-quality sponsors.” 

Daniel Parejo, Partner and Head of Structure Finance, Q-Energy, said: “Q-Energy is proud to be the leading debt issuer in the European solar project bond market. Our team will reach end of 2020 with ten project bonds and c.€1.5 billion issued since 2016, through partnerships with local and international debt investors. Q-Energy is delighted to have built such a strong relationship with Macquarie, with this being the second project bond in which we have successfully worked together.” 

MIDIS and Q-Energy completed the transaction on a bilateral basis, with Banco Sabadell and Santander acting as arrangers. Goldman Sachs International provided the interest rate hedging to the issuer.  

Since 2012, MIDIS has invested €2.1 billion of infrastructure debt across more than 30 renewable energy projects with total installed capacity of approximately 6.8GW. 

About Q-Energy

Since 2007, Qualitas Energy’s (Q-Energy) team of over 100 professionals has invested over €4 billion globally through three renewable energy portfolios. Q-Energy provides full-scope investment and financing capabilities, with in-house asset management and operations, with best-in-class control processes and IT systems. Q-Energy Asset Management´s team provide O&M and Asset Management services and is one of the largest operators of solar photovoltaic plants in Europe, with the management of over 90 projects – 1GW – in Spain and Italy.